Four Years Later
EPILOGUE
Ella
Tuesday
“So she is an ‘Amara.’ It suits her,” my sister says, holding Amara in her arms on the outdoor couch next to me. She offers her index finger for the baby to grasp with her tiny little hand.
“It has a special meaning.” My dad steps into the conversation and sits on the couch too.
“The name?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says. “Didn’t you look it up?”
Stuff only my dad knows, and no one knows how or why he knows it.
“You all have those suspicious looks on your faces,” my stepmother says, pointing at me and my sister’s dubious expressions. My dad is a joker, with his dad jokes and made-up facts just to make us laugh. “But this time, it’s true,” she adds.
My dad chuckles and enlightens us. “Yes, Amara is the feminine form of amarus, which means ‘bitter’ in Latin, and commonly associated with the Latin verb amāre, meaning ‘to love’. Funnily enough, it’s also linked to the Greek word amarantos, which means ‘eternal’, tied to eternal love.”
“What a beautiful name you have, Amara,” my sister says to Amara’s little nose.
I get up to grab a glass of fresh lemonade, and something makes me pause. One of those quiet moments when I’m a spectator watching happiness from the outside.
The wind dances with the leaves.
My mom dances along to the music.
The bright sun warms my skin.
The joyful voices warm my soul.
My flowers bloom.
My brother Alvin picks one and tucks it behind Miss Nour’s daughter’s ear.
Family, lifelong friends, neighbors from next door, friends who became family, old roommates from the next bed over, relatives who traveled from afar, people who will always live close to our hearts.
I watch as Miles lifts Amara into his arms. His green, chameleon eyes catch mine. My smile mirrors his, as we exchange the same silent words through our eyes.
Amara,
“Bitter” in Latin, or “eternal” in Greek.
Like the bittersweetness of love lost and found again. Like the ache of a goodbye hoping for a return.
Eternal, unfading, everlasting love.
A love that finds its way back.
Through years.
Through places.
Through every different kind of goodbye.